OLQE

ABOUT IP LEARNING

IP Learning is a professional training company, offering a range of courses to lawyers and law students worldwide and is the longest-established provider of preparatory training for the OLQE.

Our mission is to provide professional training courses of the highest possible quality in an efficient and effective manner. We encourage active learning, which comprises of practical problem solving methods and small group teaching sessions. Whether you study in Hong Kong or in your home country, you will receive the same personal attention and outstanding tuition from our dedicated and highly experienced tutors.

The OLQE is a practical law examination. The OLQE is held once a year. The OLQE 2020 will be held between October and November 2020. The OLQE Examiners will expect candidates to have attained the standard of a newly-qualified solicitor in Hong Kong. The OLQE Examiners will therefore expect candidates to demonstrate the knowledge equivalent to that which would be acquired during a Hong Kong law degree, the Hong Kong profession legal training course (PCLL) and a two-year traineeship with a Hong Kong law firm.

THE IP LEARNING PREPARATORY COURSE FOR THE OVERSEAS LAWYERS QUALIFICATION EXAMINATION: A COURSE PROVIDED BY LAWYERS FOR LAWYERS

The IP Learning Preparatory Course for the OLQE was designed by a group of Hong Kong lawyers who were convinced that they were able to offer a more effective OLQE Preparatory Course than any of the Preparatory Courses previously available.

We listened carefully to candidates who had sat the OLQE in previous years and, based on their experiences, set out to design a Course that would ensure that as many candidates as possible passed the OLQE at their first attempt.

As our Course has always been run by lawyers for lawyers, we are able to ensure that it fully meets the needs of each of our candidates. Our course is practical and examination-focused. Not only will we teach you the law, we will also teach you the skills in applying the legal concepts and principles in the manner necessary to pass the OLQE.

We are aware that your time is extremely valuable and that most of you will be studying for the OLQE whilst working full time in a demanding job. We have therefore strived to make our Course as time-efficient as possible.

We know the difference that passing the OLQE could make to your career. Our lecturers are therefore prepared to generously give their time to ensure that you pass the Examination. Our E-mail Q&A service has proved a priceless resource for many of our candidates in the days leading up to the Examination.

WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT THE IP LEARNING PREPARATORY COURSE FOR THE OLQE 2020?

Our Interactive Examination-Focused Teaching Method

Our teaching method reflects our fundamental philosophy that you will learn most effectively by working out practical solutions to the type of questions that you will meet in the actual examination. Research studies show that students retain less than 25% of the information delivered by the traditional lecture format but that the retention level goes up to 90% when the students take an active part in the learning process. We therefore teach using a highly effective interactive teaching method which will give you the best possible chance of passing the OLQE 2020.

Our Personal Attention to You

We teach using small group seminars focused on ensuring that you develop the practical skills necessary to achieve success in the OLQE 2020. In order to ensure that you receive individual attention, we limit the number of participants attending our interactive seminars. Once the number of candidates attending exceeds the optimum number, we run a parallel series of seminars rather than compromise the quality of our seminars.

Our Expert Teaching Team

The IP Learning Preparatory Course for the OLQE 2020 will be taught by the same distinguished team of practising Hong Kong lawyers which has over the years helped numerous foreign lawyers pass the OLQE and qualify as Hong Kong Solicitors. Each of our main lecturers has taught on our Course from the start and each has a wealth of experience preparing candidates for the OLQE.

The flexibility to attend in person or study at your own desk

We stream all our interactive seminars live on the internet. This will allow you to participate fully in the interactive seminars even if you are unable physically to attend a particular class. You will be able to benefit fully from the interactive seminars whilst sitting at your own desk or even whilst overseas.

Concise Examination-Focused Course Notes

You will receive a full set of written course notes concisely setting out the applicable legal principles and the cases in a manner which is both easy to understand and easy to incorporate into your answers during the open book OLQE examination.

Our Pre-Recorded Lecture Series

We have prepared a full pre-recorded lecture series for each head of the OLQE 2020. These pre-recorded lectures can be easily downloaded onto your smartphone or PC and listened to whilst travelling or during spare moments. By listening to these pre-recorded lectures, you will be able to become fully familiar with each topic in advance of our interactive seminars, thereby ensuring maximum possible return from the contact teaching time.

Mock Examination

During the Course, you will be given the opportunity to sit a Mock Examination which will be individually marked by your lecturers. The detailed feedback provided by the lecturers will allow you to know, well in advance of the actual examination, the areas on which you will need to concentrate in order to ensure success.

For more information about IP Learning and the OLQE, please click here.

THE OVERSEAS LAWYERS QUALIFICATION EXAMINATION

The Overseas Lawyers Qualification Examination (OLQE) is an annual examination set by the Law Society of Hong Kong. If you are a qualified lawyer from another jurisdiction, by passing the OLQE, you will become eligible to qualify as a lawyer in Hong Kong. Refer to the OLQE Information Package issued by the Law Society of Hong Kong http://www.hklawsoc.org.hk/pub_e/admission/Foreignlawyers/pdf/fl-info.pdf for detailed information regarding the Examination and registration procedures.

The OLQE is a practical law examination. The OLQE is held once a year. The OLQE 2020 will be held between October and November 2020. The OLQE Examiners will expect candidates to have attained the standard of a newly-qualified solicitor in Hong Kong. The OLQE Examiners will therefore expect candidates to demonstrate the knowledge equivalent to that which would be acquired during a Hong Kong law degree, the Hong Kong profession legal training course (PCLL) and a two-year traineeship with a Hong Kong law firm.

SUBJECTS

The Examination comprises of SIX subjects, out of which, five are written examinations and one is an oral examination:

Written Examinations:
Head I Conveyancing
Head II Civil & Criminal Procedure
Head III Commercial & Company Law
Head IV Accounts & Professional Conduct

Head VI Hong Kong Constitutional Law

Oral Examination:
Head V Principles of Common Law is an oral examination on the Principles of Common Law.
*Lawyers admitted in a common law jurisdiction are not required to take Head V.

FORMAT OF THE WRITTEN EXAMINATIONS

The five written papers are open-book examinations of 3½ hours duration, with no specific reading time. In Heads I, II, III & VI, candidates are required to attempt 4 questions out of 5. Head IV is divided into two parts: Part A – Accounts; Part B – Professional Conduct; candidates must pass both parts to achieve a pass in Head IV.

FORMAT OF THE ORAL EXAMINATION

Head V is a closed book, oral examination of 2½ hours duration, which includes 30 minutes reading time. For detailed instructions you should view the past examination papers included in the OLQE Information Package.

ELIGIBILITY TO SIT THE OLQE

In order to be eligible to sit the OLQE you must satisfy ALL requirements set by the Law Society below, you:
a) are entitled to practise law in a jurisdiction outside Hong Kong;
b) are in good standing in that jurisdiction (and any additional jurisdiction in which you are admitted) and;
c) have at least: i) 2 years of post-admission experience in the practice of law in a common law jurisdiction
(including any period credited in respect of articles or equivalent), ; or
ii) 5 years experience in the practice of law in a non-common law jurisdiction.

APPLICATION TO SIT THE EXAMINATION AND EXEMPTIONS

The application to sit the examination and for exemptions must be made in Form A in the Information Package and be submitted to the Department of Standards and Development, together with all relevant documentation. A non-refundable processing fee is payable by cheque or telegraphic transfer.

You may apply for exemption from sitting any of the Heads of the examination if you can demonstrate to the Law Society that you have 5 or more years of experience in the practice of law.

OUR EXPERT OLQE TRAINERS

Colin Wright

Colin Wright was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1987. Colin first came to Hong Kong in 1991, working originally with a firm of solicitors, and was admitted as a barrister in Hong Kong in 1999. Colin has appeared at all levels of the superior courts in Hong Kong, Including the Court of Final Appeal. He has combined an extensive practice as a barrister with his teaching responsibilities. He taught at the university of Hong Kong as a part-time tutor in law between 2001 and 2006. Since 2006, he has taught on the IP Learning Preparatory Course for the OLQE.

Colin is a fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Colin has appeared as a Counsel in many of the leading Hong Kong conveyancing and commercial cases in recent years including:

Raymond Pierce MCIM, LL.B. (Hons) (London) is a practising barrister. Ray was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1995 and to the Hong Kong bar in 1997. Ray was formerly a Teaching Consultant with the Faculty of law of the University of Hong Kong where he taught Civil, Criminal, and Trial Advocacy , Criminal Procedure and Professional Practice, on the Post-Graduate Certificate in Laws (PCLL).

Ray is an examiner for the Hong Kong Bar association Barristers’ Qualification Examination (BQE) in Criminal Law, Evidence & Procedure. Ray has taught on the IP Learning Preparatory Course for the OLQE since 2006.

He is an adjunct Faculty member of NITA (National Institute for Trial Advocacy) and co-designed and delivers the Hong Kong Law Society Structured Advocacy Programme for Solicitors.

Ray has appeared in the courts of Hong Kong at all levels and was a member of the prosecution team in the treason trials in Fiji at George Speight and his associates. He is the co-author of Advocacy and the litigation process in Hong Kong (2007, LexisNexis).

Michael Sandor is the co-author of the ‘The Professional Conduct of Lawyers in Hong Kong’ and of the single volume of the same text, the ‘Student Edition’. Michael was commissioned to write the first draft of the ”The Hong Kong Solicitors’ Guide to Professional Conduct” and was thereafter a member and sometimes Chair of the Drafting Committee for the 1st edition (1995) and 2nd edition (1998)) of the Guide (the current edition). He also has been a member of the Revision Committee that has prepared a 3rd edition of the Guide.

He was for many years a member and sometimes Chair of the Law Society’s ‘Guidance Committee’ which gives advice to practitioners on professional conduct matters. He has acted as the Convenor of the Overseas Lawyers Qualification Examination’ Panel and is a past examiner.

He was a member of the Law Society committee that prepared and revised the Solicitor’s Practice Promotion Code.

Michael has for many years been a Course Leader for ‘Professional Conduct’ in the PCLL Programme of both the University of Hong Kong and the City University of Hong Kong.

Judith Sihombing is the co-author of Hong Kong Conveyancing: Law and Practice and A student’s Guide to Hong Kong Conveyancing (2011, LexisNexis). Judith is currently teaching at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She was formerly the Training Manager and Professional Support lawyer at the Hong Kong office of Simmons & Simmons. She has also acted as an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong. She has also written in the National Land Code: A Commentary and contributed the chapter on Land law in Halsbury’s Laws of Malaysia.

John Brewer graduated in law and therafter joined the Secretary’s office of British Aerospace plc. He moved to Hong Kong in 1984 and managed the companies departments of leading law and acountancy firms and acted as General Counsel of public companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.

John was called to the Hong Kong bar in 2002. John’s practice at the bar includes companies and securities litigation, commercial fraud and disciplinary cases. He is the author of the The Hong Kong Private Company (Butterwoths, 1989 and 1995) and The law and Practice of Hong Kong Companies (Sweet & Maxwell, 2009).

John has taught on the IP Learning Preparatory Course for the OLQE since 2006.

John has also taught as a part-time tutor on City University’s PCLL Course since 2006. John has also taught as a part time tutor on City University’s PCLL Course and is a past examiner in Hong Kong Company law for the Institute of Company Secretaries.

Connie Carmichael is a qualified accountant with more than 25 years of accounting experience gained in Hong Kong, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. She has taught the Accounts Course for the PCLL Course at the University of Hong Kong. Connie has taught on the IP Learning Preparatory Course for the OLQE since 2006.

Andrew was admitted to practise before the Supreme Court of South Australia and the high Court of Australia in 1977 and was appointed as Crown Counsel by the Hong Kong Government in 1982. While in the department of Justice he spent most of his time in the prosecutions. Andrew took silk in 1996, becoming a Senior Counsel on the resumption of sovereignty in 1997.
Andrew left the Department of Justice at the end of 2000 and entered private practice. From 2002 until the end of 2005, he was chairman of the Hong Kong bar Association’s Special Committee on Criminal law and practice . Andrew is, with Gerard McCoy, SC, the author of Criminal Evidence in Hong Kong. He is the author in his own right of Criminal Procedure: Trail on Indictment and wrote the original 9th Volume on Criminal law and Procedure in Halsbury’s Laws of Hong Kong.

Vandana Rajwani (LLM) is a practising barrister and a Senior Teaching Consultant at the University of Hong Kong where she designs and teaches on the department of Legal Education’s PCLL advocacy programmes in Hong Kong and Australia and has taught for the Middle Temple, The Australian Advocacy Institute, The University of Queensland and the Advocacy Training Institute (England & Wales).

Vandana is an examiner on the Hong Kong Barristers’ Qualification Examination and she has taught a wide variety of subjects for both the faculty at HKU and Space HKU. She teaches Heads II and IV on the OLQE. She is the co-author of Advocacy and the Litigation Process in Hong Kong (2007, LexisNexis).

Vandana also designs and conducts the Structured Advocacy Programme for the Hong Kong Academy of Law.

REFUND POLICY

In the event that the Law Society of Hong Kong grants you an exemption from sitting any of the Heads of the Overseas Lawyers Qualification Examination 2020, IP Learning will refund the course fees for such Heads as the Law Society grants you exemptions.

In the event that the Law Society decides that you are not eligible to sit all of some of the Heads of the OLQE 2020, IP Learning will also give you a full refund of the course fees.

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Testimonials

"A fantastic course! Despite only signing up as a distance learning candidate five weeks before the exam, IP Learning got me up to speed fast and gave me all the support I needed to pass Heads 1-4 on the first try."